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I slept until 3pm today. Am I ashamed of this fact, not really as I have a wicked head cold with a migraine to match. Then I ordered my groceries to be delivered, because I am a woman on leisure, because I don't have a car and I am cooking for 11 on Saturday. Needless to say, not a very productive start to the week.

What I am proud of though is I completed all of my weekly wishes for last week. I think I have found my fig, or what I want to be when I grow up. But plans aren't finalized and there are some logistics to look into. I also finalized the menu for Thanksgiving and I found a place in Utrecht to order a turkey. Turns out, you need a poelier which is kind of like a wild game butcher. The turkey is to be picked up on Thursday morning for brining. I love that I can say missions accomplished.

This week, my plans are as follows:

Write and schedule some blog posts. I miss you guys! I just haven't found any inspiration.

Pull of this Thanksgiving. The verlo and I have never hosted a dinner party in our two years living together. I have never hosted one in the Netherlands. Somehow we are going to cram 11 people into our euro sized apartment. Luckily, I have pretty great friends who won't judge for the lack of a gravy boat or even proper chairs.

Take care of myself and my home. Of course there is still some company cleaning to be done, but I would like to get around to hanging some art before people come and I need to be healthy!

How do I manage to link up with Weekly Wishes only every other week? Seriously Kait, you can do better than this. You used to love this blog, you need your passion back. Actually, I am saying this a lot lately, I think I am in a non-creative phase, and it is driving me crazy!

As you probably know by now, I am linking up with Melyssa of the Nectar Collective for this one, go check it out.

And now for the wishes:

1. Pick a fig. I saw this poem by Sylvia Plath illustrated on Life Hack, and I pretty much see it as a wake up call for those of us who have a thousand "maybe I could be a ..." career paths. This week I am going to work on developing and sticking to a plan about what I want to be when I grow up.

2. Finalize Thanksgiving. Last year, Loek and I had an amazing time at Lily's for Thanksgiving, even though all the other Americans who went last year no longer resides in the Netherlands. This year, I am bringing 1st Thanksgivings to several nationalities and it is a lot of pressure to be about 8 people's first Thanksgiving experience.

3. Find a Turkey: I was in charge of the Turkey last year and it was an adventure! First, I had to find a turkey, which I bought in Amsterdam, bring it home, debone it because it wouldn't fit in our oven, then bring the cooked bird back up to Amsterdam. This year, I don't have to take the turkey anywhere but to the table, but I don't want to have to go to Amsterdam and bring home a turkey on a train again. Utrecht, you have them right? Because I need to order one.

Welkom bij de wekelijkse wensen bericht. I am of course linking up with Melyssa of the Nectar Collective. Each week, you are meant to make new small goals to accomplish. This week is going to be busy, so I might have a goal for each day left.

Tuesday: Have an awesome first Dutch lesson. I finally found someone to do private lessons with me and my first class is tomorrow. I think we will mostly discuss what level I am at, during the first class. I have high hopes so let's hope I study my butt off and we can see some real improvement.

Wednesday: Not get too emotional and enjoy my goodbye lunch with my Netherlands BFF. Seriously kid, I am going to miss you probably an unhealthy amount.

Thursday: Write a blog post, because I need to do those more regularly.

Not to be tooting my own horn or anything, but I give really good advice. Not annoying, unsolicited advice. However, if you ask my opinion about something, I am typically really good at listening and giving you some well thought out options. Plus, I really like helping. Maybe I should have gone into counseling?

So, when other bloggers ask me to participate in something giving advice, I tend to jump at the chance. I'm just saying, you need someone to guest post, I am your girl. The latest place you can read some of my tiny pearls of wisdom is on the Robinson's blog post on Ways to Keep in Touch. It is worth the read if you have people you want to keep a hold of no matter the distance really.

Now, if I could only learn to follow my own advice, I would have a much easier time at this whole being an adult thing.

Do you ever think about all that you could accomplish if you weren't watching TV? The average person watched 4 hours of television a day. It makes me wonder with that much volume are we even are interested in most of what we are watching.

I will be the first to admit that I find a lot of comfort in watching television, in fact I think it would be safe to say I have an addiction. It doesn't even really matter what's on most of the time. How much of my life am I wasting on TV and what would my life be like if I spent that time doing things to better myself?

Therefore for the entire month of November, I am going to see what it is like to live without the television. This coincides with Nanowrimo which is National Novel Writing Month and I have been wanting to participate for the last 3 years, but I never had the time.

Am I crazy? Will I be able to make it? Does anyone want to do the challenge with me? You don't have to go cold turkey like me but maybe just think a bit about if you really like the shows you are watching?

Depending on the amount of comments, this might be my first ever linkup.

I am linking up with Melyssa from the Nectar Collective for her Weekly Wishes link up. Each week you are meant to come up with weekly goals and share some love with your other linkies. On an unrelated topic, I have noticed that the more I work in an international office the more I say the word meant. Actually, a lot of my vocabulary has changed.

Last week. my only goal was to celebrate my 2 years of living in the Netherlands. I didn't get to celebrate quite the way I wanted it to due to Dutch weather being well, Dutch weather. We did however book a trip on the 3 triple border (The Netherlands, Germany, and Belgium) for a weekend in December!

This week, I want to focus on 4 things:

Continue to be a morning person. I really feel so much better when I wake up early, but I love being in bed, so it is a long struggle.

Finalize my plans for NTVN- Tune in on Wednesday to find out what the heck that means.

Send off some of the packages I need to send. The only time I hate not having a car, when I have to go mail something big!

Meet my targets at work. I had a really kick ass week last week, and I want to keep it up!

So as it turns out, I am actually a bit late with this post. My brain was convinced that I moved here on the 9th of October, but it turns out it was the 5th! Whoops! I guess time really does fly when you are having fun! As I have said before, picking Loek and moving here are the two best decisions I've ever made.

I think the Netherlands is an amazing place to live, I'm so glad this is where we chose to make our life. And although it takes time no matter if you move across town or across the world to adjust, I am home.

So, here it is the reasons I love the Netherlands!

1. My love is here, okay this one is a gimmie, but there are so many people with partners of a different culture who don't like the culture. Sure there are somethings that I find baffling about the Dutch, but to be fair, I find just as many things baffling about Americans as a group.

2. The international community is thriving. It is so amazing to me that my friends and co-workers are from all over the world, from so many different cultures, it helps me learn something new everyday.

3. Each city has a distinctive and very cool feel. Amsterdam is not Utrecht, Den Haag is not Amsterdam, Maastricht is not Groningen. Actually, I have never been to the last two cities, I need to rectify this ASAP. It is a small country, only about the size of Maryland, but there is a ton to do.

4. No dubbing of tv shows. If a show is in English, then it is presented in English. Same with German or any other language. They just add Dutch subtitles! This is amazing and I think it is part of the reason the Dutch have an extended English vocabulary.

5. Drugs are well treated differently here. I'm not going to go into the whole drug debate, but coming from a place that is investing a ton of money into the war on drugs, and the crime rate associated with it, to a place where the whole attitude is different and the crime rate is much lower.

6. Stroopwafels and oliebollen: My favorite Dutch treats, the latter of which is only available in Winter. But in the words of the Starks, "Winter is coming!"

7. I do not need a car: They are completely redoing the train and bus station here in Utrecht, and while it is driving me bonkers, I am glad that I do not have to drive a car. I hate driving!

8. I have great friends: Seriously, you just have to reach out and people are there to hang out with you. And, they make the days that you have expat blues so much better.

9. Living here is fun. There is always something to do or some new place to explore. Plus, the work/life balance ain't bad!

10. It's Europe. If my contract is renewed at work I will have 5 weeks of vacation. There are lots of places to explore and inter-europe travel is pretty cheap. I've got trips planned in my head. Here's hoping my contract is renewed.

Can you guys believe it has been two years already? What do you love most about where you live?

Last week was such a daze that I didn't get home until way past 2 in the morning on Monday! Therefore, I was unable to do a follow up on my weekly wishes. I didn't do too bad. I did do a lot of planning to make my life easier, still need to work on that study plan though. I made a dent in my ever growing load of laundry, and I totally ate more whole foods, I even have an every other week whole foods dinner parties arranged. Goals almost accomplished.

This week my only goal is to have a great 2 years in the Netherlands week. 2 whole years, can you believe it lovelies? Moving here to be with the Verlos is the best decision I ever made!

If you were suddenly 700 dollars or 519 euros (aren't exchange rates fun?) richer would you save it or spend it?

Yesterday out of nowhere, I received a refund for overpaying on a loan, that I paid off a few years ago. Pretty awesome right? Now what to spend it on. The practical side of me, the one that puts a third of her paycheck into savings each month, would normally just save it. But the more fun side of me, really, really, really wants a new couch. This time the more fun side of me is going to win, it just has to. When I moved to the Netherlands, I inherited the Verlo's standard ikea couch that every college student has. It is short on style and way short on comfort. Plus, we have lived here for almost two years and the only homey thing we have done to the space is paint one wall dark purple. Its like we live in a dorm.

Yes, I am justifying my spending needlessly to you readers. But, sometimes it helps to talk things through, you know? Don't worry, when I redo the living room, I'll totally show you guys!

Today I am linking up with Melyssa of the Nectar Collective, you might remember her as my first Snail Mail Collective partner. Every Monday, she does a series called Weekly Wishes, which is about focusing on short-term goals. As you guys have probably guessed, I am a huge planner so this appeals to me greatly. Here it goes for this week:

1. Make and put into place plans for blog posts, a study schedule, a meal plan for October, a writing schedule, a new budget and a chore list. I haven't been doing a great job of adjusting now that I have a set schedule and a job to go to full time. This needs to stop because it is wearing me out!

2. Finish the back loads of laundry I have. I really, really want to donate out about half my wardrobe. Either it doesn't fit, or is old fashion. Plus I have to except the fact that I live in Europe and clothes storage will always be much less than what I had in the States. Plus, people tend to care less if you wear the same thing often.

3. Eat more whole foods. Have you guys watched Forks over Knives? I don't necessarily agree with every single point in the documentary, but some if it is pretty compelling. Plus, I have some medical tests coming up in 2 weeks for some ongoing issues and it can never hurt to eat better right?